A rare blue-glazed pottery figure of a male attendant


Tang Dynasty The figure modelled standing on a square base with head turned the hands clasped at his chest within the long sleeves of his blue-glazed long belted tunic falling above pointed shoes, the unglazed face with a benevolent expression beneath hair swept up in a double-bun topknot bound in a kerchief, with traces of pink and black pigment. 33cm (13in) high.
|The Property of a Gentleman 士紳藏品唐 陶胎藍彩男侍俑Provenance: Bluett & Sons Ltd., LondonCarter Fine Art Ltd., London, 24 May 1993Jean-Yves Ollivier CollectionPublished and Illustrated: Bluett & Sons Ltd., Catalogue, London, 1991, no.11N.Wood, Chinese Glazes: Their Origin, Chemistry and Recreation, London, 1999, p.237.來源：倫敦古董商Bluett & Sons Ltd.倫敦古董商Carter Fine Art Ltd.，1993年5月24日歐宗易先生珍藏出版及著錄：Bluett & Sons Ltd.著，《圖錄》，倫敦，1991年，編號11N.Wood著，《Chinese Glazes: Their Origin, Chemistry and Recreation（中國釉：源流、化學原理及再現）》，倫敦，1999年，頁237The figure belongs to the sancai-glazed group and within it the rarest and most highly-prized blue-glazed forms. Blue pigment was particularly expensive as the cobalt was imported from central Asia. More typically, blue pigment was used along other colours such as brown or ochre, and is much more rarely seen as the sole decorative element as the present lot. Pottery figures of attendants such as the present lot usually complemented a large array of furnishing manufactured for internment in burials belonging to the highest-ranking members of the Tang society. Assuring the dead of continued care was the premise leading to a successful life for a living descendent, following the belief that ancestors were deemed active participants in the life of their living offspring, which they could positively affect if provided with the right necessities.A similar blue-glazed pottery figure of an attendant, Tang dynasty, is illustrated in Han Tang Taoci daquan, Taipei, 1987, p.205; another example is illustrated in Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 1929, no.333. A related glazed pottery figure of a male attendant, Tang dynasty, was sold at Sothebys's New York, 13 September 2016, lot 9.The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no.C118j32, dated 1 August 2018, is consistent with the dating of this lot.俑頭戴樸頭，款面高顴骨，無鬚無釉，身著圓領袍，手垂拱，立於台座，頸下皆施藍釉。此俑形色恭敬，面白無鬚，或為內侍。類似的唐代藍釉陶俑可參見《漢唐陶瓷大全》，台北1987，頁205,；另可參見《Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst（中國藝術展）》，柏林，1929年，編號333。紐約蘇富比2016年9月13日曾售出一件類似釉色的唐代陶俑可作比較，拍品9號。Oxford Authentication Ltd公司熱釋光檢測結果（2018年8月1日，編號C118j32）顯示年代與本拍品年代一致。